AIDS is a major public health problem worldwide. Although drugs targeting HIV viruses are in wide use and have shown effectiveness, toxicity and development of resistant strains have limited their usefulness. Assay methods capable of determining the presence, absence or amounts of HIV viruses are of practical utility in the search for inhibitors as well as for diagnosing the presence of HIV.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and related disease is a major public health problem worldwide. The retrovirus human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), a member of the primate lentivirus family (DeClercq E (1994) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 724:438-456; Barre-Sinoussi F (1996) Lancet, 348:31-35), is generally accepted to be the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) Tarrago et al. FASEB Journal 1994, 8:497-503). AIDS is the result of repeated replication of HIV-1 and a decrease in immune capacity, most prominently a fall in the number of CD4+ lymphocytes. The mature virus has a single stranded RNA genome that encodes 15 proteins (Frankel et al. (1998) Annual Review of Biochemistry, 67:1-25; Katz et al. (1994) Annual Review of Biochemistry, 63:133-173), including three key enzymes: (i) protease (Prt) (von der Helm K (1996) Biological Chemistry, 377:765-774); (ii) reverse transcriptase (RT) (Hottiger et al. (1996) Biological Chemistry Hoppe-Seyler, 377:97-120), an enzyme unique to retroviruses; and (iii) integrase (Asante et al. (1999) Advances in Virus Research 52:351-369; Wlodawer A (1999) Advances in Virus Research 52:335-350; Esposito et al. (1999) Advances in Virus Research 52:319-333). Protease is responsible for processing the viral precursor polyproteins, integrase is responsible for the integration of the double stranded DNA form of the viral genome into host DNA and RT is the key enzyme in the replication of the viral genome. In viral replication, RT acts as both an RNA- and a DNA-dependent DNA polymerase, to convert the single stranded RNA genome into double stranded DNA. Since virally encoded Reverse Transcriptase (RT) mediates specific reactions during the natural reproduction of the virus, inhibition of HIV RT is an important therapeutic target for treatment of HIV infection and related disease.
Sequence analysis of the complete genomes from several infective and non-infective HIV-isolates has shed considerable light on the make-up of the virus and the types of molecules that are essential for its replication and maturation to an infective species. The HIV protease is essential for the processing of the viral gag and gag-pol polypeptides into mature virion proteins. L. Ratner, et al., Nature, 313:277-284 (1985); L. H. Pearl and W. R. Taylor, Nature, 329:351 (1987). HIV exhibits the same gag/pol/env organization seen in other retroviruses. L. Ratner, et al., above; S. Wain-Hobson, et al., Cell, 40:9-17 (1985); R. Sanchez-Pescador, et al., Science, 227:484-492 (1985); and M. A. Muesing, et al., Nature, 313:450-458 (1985).
Drugs approved in the United States for AIDS therapy include nucleoside inhibitors of RT (Smith et al (1994) Clinical Investigator, 17:226-243), protease inhibitors and non-nucleoside RT inhibitors (NNRTI), (Johnson et al (2000) Advances in Internal Medicine, 45 (1-40; Porche D J (1999) Nursing Clinics of North America, 34:95-112).
Inhibitors of HIV protease are useful to limit the establishment and progression of infection by therapeutic administration as well as in diagnostic assays for HIV. Protease inhibitor drugs approved by the FDA include:                saquinavir (Invirase®, Fortovase®, Hoffman-La Roche, EP-00432695 and EP-00432694)        ritonavir (Norvir®, Abbott Laboratories)        indinavir (Crixivan®, Merck & Co.)        nelfinavir (Viracept®, Pfizer)        amprenavir (Agenerase®, GlaxoSmithKline, Vertex Pharmaceuticals)        lopinavir/ritonavir (Kaletra®, Abbott Laboratories)        
Experimental protease inhibitor drugs include:                fosamprenavir (Glaxo SmithKline, Vertex Pharmaceuticals)        tipranavir (Boehringer Ingelheim)        atazanavir (Bristol-Myers Squibb).        
There is a need for anti-HIV therapeutic agents, i.e. drugs having improved antiviral and pharmacokinetic properties with enhanced activity against development of HIV resistance, improved oral bioavailability, greater potency and extended effective half-life in vivo. New HIV antivirals should be active against mutant HIV strains, have distinct resistance profiles, fewer side effects, less complicated dosing schedules, and orally active. In particular, there is a need for a less onerous dosage regimen, such as one pill, once per day. Although drugs targeting HIV RT are in wide use and have shown effectiveness, particularly when employed in combination, toxicity and development of resistant strains have limited their usefulness.
Combination therapy of HIV antivirals has proven to be highly effective in suppressing viral replication to unquantifiable levels for a sustained period of time. Also, combination therapy with RT and other HIV inhibitors have shown synergistic effects in suppressing HIV replication. Unfortunately, many patients currently fail combination therapy due to the development of drug resistance, non-compliance with complicated dosing regimens, pharmacokinetic interactions, toxicity, and lack of potency. Therefore, there is a need for new HIV RT inhibitors that are synergistic in combination with other HIV inhibitors.
Improving the delivery of drugs and other agents to target cells and tissues has been the focus of considerable research for many years. Though many attempts have been made to develop effective methods for importing biologically active molecules into cells, both in vivo and in vitro, none has proved to be entirely satisfactory. Optimizing the association of the inhibitory drug with its intracellular target, while minimizing intercellular redistribution of the drug, e.g. to neighboring cells, is often difficult or inefficient.
Most agents currently administered to a patient parenterally are not targeted, resulting in systemic delivery of the agent to cells and tissues of the body where it is unnecessary, and often undesirable. This may result in adverse drug side effects, and often limits the dose of a drug (e.g., cytotoxic agents and other anti-cancer or anti-viral drugs) that can be administered. By comparison, although oral administration of drugs is generally recognized as a convenient and economical method of administration, oral administration can result in either (a) uptake of the drug through the cellular and tissue barriers, e.g. blood/brain, epithelial, cell membrane, resulting in undesirable systemic distribution, or (b) temporary residence of the drug within the gastrointestinal tract. Accordingly, a major goal has been to develop methods for specifically targeting agents to cells and tissues. Benefits of such treatment includes avoiding the general physiological effects of inappropriate delivery of such agents to other cells and tissues, such as uninfected cells. Intracellular targeting may be achieved by methods and compositions which allow accumulation or retention of biologically active agents inside cells.